Syria continues stepping out of the geopolitical wilderness, now apparently onto the highest-stakes stage in international finance. Or rather, the reality is that Washington's post-Assad Al Qaeda in suits makeover of 'former' terror leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has reached its peak.
According to a Reuters report on Thursday, self-appointed Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (Jolani) is set to lead a national delegation to the G7 summit in France next month.
The invitation marks the country's first-ever participation in the summit since the elite forum was founded back in 1975.
Citing three sources familiar with the matter, the agency confirmed that an invitation was officially hand-delivered to Syrian Finance Minister Mohammed Yisr Barnieh while he was attending the group's preparatory financial talks in Paris earlier this week. The main G7 summit is set to run mid-June, from the 15th through 17th in Évian-les-Bains, southeastern France.
A Syrian official speaking Reuters described that Damascus plans to heavily pitch its geography to the G7. This will likely center on leveraging the country's role as a "potential strategic hub for supply chains" amid the Iran war and Hormuz Strait crisis.
"After the closure of the Hormuz Strait, pretty much all the neighboring countries in the region knocked on our door to get access to our Syrian ports," stated Mazen Alloush, the director of local and international relations for Syria's borders and customs authority. "They are making Plan B's in case the crisis goes on longer."
The over decade-long proxy war to oust Assad, which heavily involved the CIA and Gulf states, as well as Israel, has long been discussed as part of the 'pipeline wars' theme, and has for years been an open secret.
President Trump, who helped put Sharaa in power, and vouched for him when they first met in Saudi Arabia, is expected to attend the G7 summit.
But despite Damascus under Sharaa now being a willing puppet of Washington, economic relief for the war-ravaged Syrian population has remained illusory, as one Middle East outlet underscores:
Because Syria had been under crushing sanctions since the start of the 14-year war that began in 2011, many expected the economic situation to improve after Sharaa toppled former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's government and western nations began easing sanctions.
However, “attracting foreign investment and restoring normal banking ties have proven slower and more difficult than many officials had hoped,” Reuters noted. More than 90 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line and have suffered from major increases in the price of fuel, electricity, and food in recent months.
Gas prices have risen by nearly 50 percent in the past month, while the value of the Syrian currency has fallen against the dollar amid volatile price swings. In the past week, the Syrian pound depreciated from 13,400 liras per dollar to more than 14,700 liras per dollar, before ending at 14,000 liras per dollar.
All the while, looming large in the background is the fact that the Syrian government is now full of Sunni extremists, who have repeatedly targeted Alawites, Druze, and Christians for being "unbelievers".
Thousands have died at the hands of ISIS-style Syrian government-linked military members, who have sought to cleanse the country of its ancient Christian and Alawite communities.